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Switzerland on May 24 returned to Iraq three important Mesopotamian objects seized during a criminal procedure, Bern said.

During a ceremony at the culture ministry in Bern, Swiss Interior Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider handed over a partial statue and two Mesopotamian reliefs to Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein.

 A dig in northern Iraq has unearthed a 2,700-year-old alabaster sculpture of the winged Assyrian deity Lamassu, which was found largely intact despite its large dimensions.

Iraqi officials on May 11 said Mosul's once-celebrated museum had entered the final stages of restorations ahead of a planned 2026 reopening after being closed to the public for 20 years.

The museum closed its doors in 2003, amid the chaos following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, and was later ransacked by Islamic State group jihadists after they seized the city in 2014.

Archaeologists in Iraq revealed on Oct. 24 their discovery of a large-scale wine factory from the rule of the Assyrian kings 2,700 years ago, along with stunning monumental rock-carved royal reliefs.

Do you want to buy a more than 3,000-year-old Sumerian tablet, listed as the property of a gentleman from Sussex in England and passed down as a family heirloom? On auction site liveauctioneers.com, bidding for the "Sumerian clay tablet" starts at 550 pounds ($750).

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An official application has been made to include the Assyrian Castle and the King Tombs in the southeastern Anatolian province of Diyarbakır's Eğil district to the UNESCO World Heritage Temporary List.

Clay tablets unearthed during excavations at the Kültepe Kaniş/Karum mound in the province of Kayseri in central Turkey reveal that Anatolian women played an active part in administration and trade up to 4,000 years ago. 

The Kültepe-Kani?-Karum trade colony in the Central Anatolian province of Kayseri continues to amaze archeologists, with an expert at the dig revealing that tablets citing women?s rights were discovered at the Bronze Age settlement.

A collection of returned items, now on show at Baghdad's national museum, is only a small part of antiquities that have disappeared due to ongoing theft and destruction Iraq celebrated July 8 the return of hundreds of historical artifacts, from an ancient Assyrian statue to a 20th century presidential tea set, which were looted, lost or loaned abroad over the recent decades. 

The United Nations cultural organization has condemned the ?barbaric assaults? the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group launched on World Heritage sites in Iraq and Syria, saying they may amount to war crimes.